Physical Habitat

One of the three pillars in the trinity of ecological health is Physical Habitat. Improvements to water quality and flow within a canal won’t be as ecologically effective as improving all three.

Definition of Physical Habitat-

Physical habitat includes the channel form as well as ? are we considering riparian zone, hyporheic zone?

0.1 Morphology related RNAGs

Morphology specific RNAGs within Parrett are as follows:

[1] "The Parrett doesn't have any morphology RNAGs, the morphology of its waterbodies' therefore 'Support Good' ecological status."

0.2 River Habitat Survey Data

The median RHS Habitat Quality Assessment Score in Wessex is 42, in the Parrett, the median RHS HQA is 41. Low scores often indicate channelisation, whilst high scores indicate a more natural physical habitat.

0.3 River Obstacles

For access to more granular data, see individual River Habitat Survey data below merged with EA obstacle data. However, Jones et al (2019) estimate that EA dataset underestimates stream fragmentation by >68%. To make up this shortfall, Citizen Science River Obstacles data is also displayed (green cubes).

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